UPPER PENINSULA CHARTER SCHOOL UNIONIZES
Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. — Teachers at a charter school in the
Upper Peninsula have voted to unionize, according to the Sault
Ste. Marie Evening News. Teachers at the Joseph K. Lumsden
Bahweting Anishnabe Public School Academy, operated by the Sault
Tribe of Chippewa Indians, voted 23-9 to approve representation
by the Michigan Education Association, the newspaper reported.

In response to the action, the tribal board passed a resolution
refusing to lease its property to a union-affiliated
organization, and voted to stop acting as a fiduciary for federal
funds, the Evening News reported. More than 50 percent of the
school's funding comes from a Bureau of Indian Affairs grant,
awarded to the Sault Tribe.

The MEA filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the
Michigan Employment Relations Commission, accusing the school
administration of retaliating against teachers for the vote, the
Detroit Free Press said.

The tribal board also discussed allowing the school's charter,
which expires at the end of the current school year, to lapse,
and then open a new school on the same property with non-union
employees, the Evening News said. The school is now chartered
through Northern Michigan University.

SOS HOLLAND GETS INVOLVED IN CONTRACT TALKS
Holland, Mich. — A community group calling itself "SOS Holland"
has paid for two newspaper advertisements detailing issues
surrounding contract talks between Holland Public Schools and its
teachers union, according to The Grand Rapids Press.

Joe Hoffer, a former HPS school board member and spokesman for
the group Save Our Schools, said the ads are designed to explain
the issues surrounding contract negotiations, The Press said. The
district and union have met twice with a state mediator, with a
third round set for Oct. 26 or 27, The Press said. Previous
stories in The Press said the main point of contention is how
much, if anything, members of the Holland Education Association
will contribute toward health insurance.

"This is not just an insurance issue," Hoffer told The Press. "This is a struggle over who will control the financial future of
Holland Public Schools. The district's health and viability is at
stake."

SOS has more than 20 members, The Press said, including district
parents and business representatives, but none wanted to be
identified. Hoffer said they fear alienating those who teach
their children.

The Press said two ads ran in a local newspaper last week
praising Holland teachers, while criticizing the Michigan
Education Association for its stance on health insurance
bargaining. The union's health insurance administrator is the
Michigan Education Special Services Association.

"The real issue is how Holland Public Schools, with its extremely
limited resources, can continue to pay $5.5 million in health-care benefits," Hoffer told The Press.

The MEA's Marty Langford disagrees with Hoffer's characterization
of union efforts in the talks.

"They're making it sound like we're limiting the district's right
to bid out insurance when all we're asking is that they bargain
in good faith and not impose a contract," Langford told The
Press.

Hoffer went on to say, "The MEA clouds the issue with allegations
of not bargaining in good faith, keeping negotiations private,
and complaints about telling employees that the law says it's
illegal to strike."

IMPROVEMENTS SEEN UNDER NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
San Diego — Elementary school test scores have risen in the three
years since the federal No Child Left Behind Act was implemented,
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The 2005 Nation's Report
Card, also known as the National Assessment of Educational
Progress, includes math and reading assessments given to students
in fourth and eighth grades.

Overall, the Nation's Report Card showed better math scores for
fourth-graders and a narrowing divide between white and minority
students, but less reading improvement for minorities, according
to The Union-Tribune. President Bush said it was "encouraging"
and that NCLB was working, but that there was "more work to do,"
especially for eighth-grade reading scores.

Schools like Milton Elementary in Milton, Vt., have seen progress
directly related to the legislation. The threat of sanctions for
the school under NCLB prompted a response that appears to be
raising student proficiency there. According to the Burlington
(Vermont) Free Press, Milton kindergartners are learning to read
much earlier than Milton students of previous years, mainly due
to a new program put in place in order to meet NCLB standards.

The "Fundations" program is teaching Milton kindergarteners — who
now attend class all day — to read using certain phonetic
techniques. Milton kindergarten teacher Cheryl King said she has
seen marked improvement as kindergarteners are learning to put
together simple sentences and entering first grade with better
literacy skills than their predecessors, the Burlington Free
Press said.

According to the Burlington Free Press, Milton Elementary has
made several changes in an attempt to improve after two years of
underperformance by NCLB standards. School officials were
reportedly worried about future sanctions if they did not improve
test scores and start closing an achievement gap for low-income
students. They took steps to do better, including developing a
documented school improvement plan, the Burlington Free Press
reported.

Many parents and teachers are pleased with the improvements,
although critics charge that the NCLB is underfunded and punitive
for proposing to close underachieving schools. Proponents believe
accountability is motivating some schools to do better, the
Burlington Free Press said. Teachers also like the improvement,
but have mixed feelings about a perception of NCLB being too
focused on standardized testing.

President Bush reiterated his support of NCLB, The Union-Tribune
said.

"It shows that a system that measures and focuses on every child
is a system that can help us, and achieve a goal that we really
want in America, and that is every child learning to read and ...
add and subtract, and no child being left behind," Bush said.

MICHIGAN STUDENTS AVERAGE; BLACK STUDENTS LAGGING
Detroit — Michigan's public school students score at or near
national averages in reading and math, according to the 2005
Assessment of Educational Progress, The Detroit News and the
Detroit Free Press reported. Also known as the "Nation's Report
Card," the NAEP includes math and reading assessments given to
students in fourth and eighth grades.

The News said 164,000 fourth-graders and 159,000 eighth-graders
across the nation took the test last fall. In Michigan, 4,025
pupils in 353 schools took the test.

The Free Press said Michigan fourth-graders scored an average of
218 in reading and 238 in math, using a scale ranging from 0 to
500. The national average for fourth-graders was 217 in reading
and 237 in math. For eighth-graders, Michigan students scored 261
on reading and 277 on math while the national average in reading
and math, respectively, was 262 and 278. The Free Press reported
that compared with 2003, the number of Michigan fourth-graders
who are reading at a basic level is down one percent while basic
math is up two percent. The number of Michigan eighth-graders
reading at basic levels is down two percent from 2003 and the
number of eighth-graders basically proficient in math is the same
as two years ago.

Sharif Shakrani, acting co-director of the Education Policy
Center at Michigan State University, suggested Michigan may need
to re-evaluate its education system.

"I'm not satisfied with being average, not at all," he told The
News. "These results tell me we are not moving in the right
direction."

Shakrani also pointed to a persistent achievement gap between
white and minority students.

The Free Press reported that Michigan's African-American fourth-
and eighth-graders did considerably worse on the NAEP than
African-Americans nationwide, a trend that the Free Press said
has grown over the past decade.

Robert Green, a professor and researcher in Urban Affairs
Programs at MSU, told the newspaper that poverty may be a factor
in NAEP scores. The Free Press reported that Detroit, whose
public school system is 90 percent African-American, has the most
people living below the poverty line of any city in the country,
according to the 2000 U.S. census.

The minority achievement gap in Michigan has begun to close
slightly, and there were some improvements in math scores, the
Free Press reported. But overall Michigan's African-American
students are lagging behind their counterparts across the
country.

Joan Ferrini-Mundy, associate dean for science and mathematics
education at MSU, tried to focus on the root cause of the lower
scores, telling the Free Press it has to do with "the importance
of high expectations and standards. Particularly for students who
are being underserved, particularly black students and urban
students."

ALGEBRA REQUIRED IN JUST ONE-THIRD OF MICHIGAN HIGH SCHOOLS
Lansing, Mich. — A recent curriculum survey found that only one
in three of the responding public school districts requires
algebra for graduation, the Ann Arbor News reported.

Only 293 districts, or about 45 percent, responded to the
curriculum survey from the Michigan Department of Education. Of
those, just 95 require algebra for graduation, the News said.

"I was shocked," Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction
Mike Flanagan told the paper. He said he expected the number to
be much higher.

The state Board of Education is currently considering mandated
curriculum requirements, a decision now left up to individual
school districts, the News said. The only class required
statewide for graduation is one semester of civics.

Most districts responding to the survey require four years of
English, three years each of math and social studies and two
years of science, the News reported. Among those fields, however,
are several options from which students can choose.

MICHIGAN EDUCATION DIGEST is a service of Michigan Education
Report (http://www.educationreport.org),
a quarterly newspaper
with a circulation of 140,000 published by the Mackinac Center
for Public Policy (http://www.mackinac.org),
a private,
nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute.